The season opener for the Virginia football team arrives on Saturday when the Hoos begin the fourth season of the Tony Elliott era. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. on the ACC Network when Coastal Carolina comes to Scott Stadium for the first time.
The start of the season finally brings the chance to see how a busy offseason works out for the Cavaliers. UVA brought in 54 new players, including 32 transfers, in an effort to build depth and raise the available talent on the roster. The hope is to turn the program in the right direction. The Hoos haven’t played in a bowl game since 2019 and haven’t reached bowl eligibility in the Elliott era as he enters this season with an 11-23 record.
Coastal Carolina underwent a similar overhaul this offseason with 57 new players coming into its program. Coastal also changed its coordinators on both offense and defense with Drew Hollingshead (Western Kentucky) and Jeremiah Johnson (Louisiana Tech) taking over those roles.
All of those changes make last season’s matchup, a 43-24 Cavalier win in Conway, less informative. In that meeting, Virginia got a special teams turnover early that led to a touchdown and rolled up 384 rushing yards on the way to the 19-point victory. Basically, the movement on both rosters adds to the challenges of a season opener where a lot of unknowns are in play anyway.
Elliott said that makes analyzing what’s happening in this Saturday’s game and adjusting as needed a key part of the opener.
“We could be preparing for what we’ve seen on tape and it could be a little bit different based off the actual personnel that they end up with by the time that we kick off on Saturday, so there’s gonna be a lot of adjusting,” Elliott said. “So we got to be ready to help the guys get lined up, keep them keep calm, keep them focused so that we can communicate effectively on the sideline to make the adjustments that we need to.”
Before the Cavaliers and Chanticleers kick off the season, here are some things fan should know for the game.
3 Trends To Know
1. Home field lacks an advantage. Part of the issue in the Elliott era in terms of results has been a lackluster record at home. The Hoos are 6-12 under Elliott at Scott Stadium, including losses in the final three home games last fall. Of those 6 wins, 2 have come against Richmond in the home openers of 2022 and 2024. Elliott would love to repeat that first game success in Coastal’s first ever visit to the venue.
Overall, a lot of that can be attributed to scoring troubles at home. Last season, UVA averaged 18.0 points per game at Scott Stadium (18.7) to rank 128th out of 134 teams nationally in home game scoring average. In 2023 (24.5/103rd out of 133 teams) and 2022 (19.0/125th out of 131 teams), it wasn’t much better.
Over the last two seasons, rushing touchdowns have been a big part of that story. Virginia has 8 rushing touchdowns at home combined in 2023 and 2024. That’s tied for last in home games for those two seasons with Akron. UVA is the only Power 4 conference team with single-digit rushing touchdowns at home in those two seasons.
2. Virginia has 100+ rushing yards in 5 straight non-conference games. Elliott has often repeated the need to run the football effectively to be a successful offense. In non-conference games, the Hoos have managed to generate some degree of ground game consistently. Dating back to William & Mary in 2023, UVA has five straight games with at least 100 yards rushing in non-con games and three of those outings went for 200+.
The 2023 game against W&M resulted in 221 rushing yards and 1 touchdown. Last season, Virginia opened with 200 yards and 2 touchdowns rushing against Richmond. Against Maryland, UVA had 123 rushing yards and 1 touchdown in a loss. As mentioned above, the Hoos posted 384 with 3 TDs on the ground at Coastal Carolina. In the non-conference finale against Notre Dame, the offense tallied 128 yards and 2 TDs.
The Cavaliers will be looking to roll up some rushing yards again in this matchup.
3. UVA quarterback Chandler Morris throws touchdowns. Among the 32 transfers brought in for the Hoos, quarterback Chandler Morris was named the starter at his position before preseason practices began. Morris moved over from North Texas after previous stops at Oklahoma and Texas Christian. Last season with the Mean Green, he posted 3,774 passing yards with 31 touchdowns and 12 interceptions in addition to 242 rushing yards and 4 touchdowns.
At TCU And North Texas in 2023 and 2024, Morris regularly passed for multiple touchdowns in the same game. Over 18 games, he threw for 2+ touchdowns in 14 games, 3+ touchdowns in 8 games, and 4+ touchdowns in 3 games. That’s higher production (77.8% of the time vs. 35.3%) than quarterbacks at Virginia in the Elliott era. Between Brennan Armstrong in 2022 and Anthony Colandrea and Tony Muskett the last two seasons, the quarterbacks produced 12 multi-touchdown passing games.
3 Keys To The Game
1. Air Raid defense. As part of its coordinator switch, Coastal Carolina has shifted to an Air Raid style offense. That will feature a lot of quicker passes and throws into space where playmakers will be given a chance to pile up yards after the catch. Part of that could feature receiver Jameson Tucker, who had 6 touchdown receptions a year ago. The Cavaliers are dealing with turnover in the secondary where many of the offseason transfers were brought in and Jonas Sanker moved on to the NFL. The Hoos were unsettled on their starting cornerbacks until late into training camp as a result. How the defense deals with the Air Raid attack will be a major storyline in this game.
2. Sacks. Virginia brought in multiple offensive linemen this offseason as well with the goal of improving the play up front. The Cavaliers allowed 47 sacks last season to rank 131st out of 134 teams nationally. Louisiana Tech’s defense came up with 22 sacks last season under Jeremiah Johnson, the new coordinator at Coastal Carolina. Chandler Morris was sacked 15 times at North Texas so he may be able to help avoid some of the pressure too if it materializes. That’s a lot of changing tides, but if Morris is under duress a lot in this game, it’s probably a bad sign.
3. Who is better in the middle of the game? Both UVA and Coastal Carolina had some troubles in the middle quarters last season. For the Hoos, opponents won the second and third quarters by a combined 225-125. For the Chanticleers, opponents won those two quarters by a combined 222-181. In their head-to-head meeting, the Cavaliers held a 23-14 advantage in the middle of the game. With so many new players on both sidelines, there will be a lot of adjustments needed this Saturday more than likely. Those adjustments may show up the most sandwiching halftime.
3 Virginia Picks
1. Offensive Player Of The Game: J’Mari Taylor. The 5’9”, 204-pound running back could be a featured player on offense and special teams. Given the rushing touchdowns issue mentioned above, Taylor is a transfer that could help turn the tide in that category. He had 15 rushing touchdowns last season at North Carolina Central and Louisiana Tech’s defense gave up 21 rushing touchdowns under Jeremiah Johnson last season.
2. Defensive Player Of The Game: Jacob Holmes. A transfer defensive lineman, Holmes will be part of a rotation up front. The 6’2”, 290-pound tackle might find some operating room on the interior and will be needed against the run, especially if Coastal spreads it out and tries to use quarterback MJ Morris in the run game.
3. Winner: Hoos 38, Chanticleers 17. If any hopes of bowl eligibility or better are in play, Virginia must start the season strong again and get wins at home. I think a team full of veterans knows that and comes in focused. (Last season: 7-5)
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